Representative Jason Bedrick

From the Union Leader:

State Spending shouldn’t be decided by 11 people

By CHARLES M. ARLINGHAUS

STATE BUDGET deficits and needed spending cuts have transferred power to the elite Legislative Fiscal Committee, a sort of super Legislature where 10 privileged members exercise power on behalf of the other 414 senators and representatives.

One of the most prestigious positions in state government is to serve on the joint House-Senate “Legislative Fiscal Committee.” It was established to oversee the legislative budget office, but with a broad portfolio to investigate any matter related to any part of the finances of the state — essentially everything government does.

Its primary duty is to receive funds. It is authorized, without any vote or amendment to the budget, to accept any non-state funds such as federal grants or private donations for any program. Accepting a grant doesn’t affect state revenue or expenditures, but Rep. Marjorie Smith this year quite sensibly tried to include as many anticipated grants in the official budget document as possible rather than leave them to the fiscal committee.

A more controversial role is the one currently being exercised by the committee. The fiscal committee must approve any spending cuts the governor makes to the budget. In this role, it assumes some of the executive branch role at the same time it acts on behalf of the other 97 percent of the Legislature.

The two-year budget passed last year would be in serious deficit without action. Revenues are expected to be much higher than last year but significantly below the estimates used to balance the budget. The shortfall is expected to be close to $200 million.

When revenues are less than expected, spending cuts quickly follow. The current budget increased spending to $3.189 billion from $2.713 billion the previous biennium. The increase of 17.56 percent amounts to about $476.5 million. Therefore the cuts needed are about 6 percent of the total budget, much less than half of the increase.

The governor, as chief executive officer of the state, has proposed two rounds of spending cuts totaling about $80 million. In the course of evaluating what he chose to cut, some observers have quarreled with his choices.

…

Read more here.

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I was the third candidate to respond to NH Insider’s “10 Questions”. You can read my answers here.

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I’m excited to announce that the New Hampshire Liberty Alliance (NHLA) named me the 2008 “Legislator of the Year“ at their annual Liberty Dinner! The NHLA also released the 2008 Liberty Scorecard. Here’s how our district scores:

Bedrick, Jason (R) A+
Bettencourt, David (R) A
Dalrymple, David (R) A
Garcia, Marilinda (R) A
Ingram, Russell (R) A
McMahon, Charlie (R) B+
Griffin, Mary (R) B
Pearson, Mark (R) B
Priestley, Anne (R) B
Belanger, Ronald (R) C+
Elliott, Robert (R) C+
DiFruscia, Tony (R) F

You can compare these with the House Republican Alliance scores I sent in my last update. Also, the last page of the NHLA scorecard contains an explanation of how the grades were awarded and a list of the 50 graded bills.

From the NHLA:

This is the 5th annual Liberty Rating issued by the New Hampshire Liberty
Alliance, based on 19 roll call votes in the House and 14 in the Senate. Bills have
been carefully selected for inclusion which clearly demonstrate the level of respect
our elected representatives show for our individual rights and liberties.

This year we offer our sincerest thanks to the NHLA Legislator of the Year,
the Honorable Representative Jason Bedrick of Windham for his unwavering
support of liberty. His voting record proves his dedication to the principles upon
which this great state, as well as this organization, were founded.

The Liberty Rating is based on pro-liberty and anti-liberty votes and their
impact on the state of NH.

Pro-liberty votes protect individual freedom of choice and personal responsibility,
recognize the superiority of freedom over coercion, respect the citizen’s right
of self-ownership, promote good government, and recognize the value of voluntary
economic decisions.

Anti-liberty votes replace self-governance with interventionist ownership,
assume agencies backed by force are superior to voluntary choices backed by
personal accountability, and assume a better economy can be designed by a
central authority that compels communities to pay for policies people do not
willingly support.

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Yesterday I participated in one of the strangest sessions of the term, but before I get to that, I have an announcement to make: I will be seeking a second term as a state representative for the towns of Windham and Salem!

I’m told that there will be upwards of 25 people vying for the 13 seats, so getting the word out about the good candidates will be crucial. Please visit my new website at www.jasonbedrick.org!

Also, make sure to check out the House Republican Alliance legislative scorecard at the end of the update. Windham/Salem legislators received 5 As, 5 Bs, 2 Cs and an F — find out who scored what!

Tax, Borrow, and Spend!

Yesterday, the Speaker of the House ordered the doors barred, keeping legislators under House arrest until just after midnight to pass a bill to “balance the budget” by filling the gap with debt. Democrats have abandoned NH’s traditional “pay-as-you-go” fiscal responsibility, paying for their new programs with what amounts to a credit card (and we don’t even get Sky Miles!). A recent Union Leader editorial called this the “tax, borrow and spend” plan.

Using debt to finance a budget is essentially placing a tax on the future. Unless fiscal sanity is restored, our grandchildren will still be paying off the $80 million in bonds the legislature authorized yesterday.

Moreover, the “special session” bill had no public hearing, no committee work, and a mere 24-hour notice. In fact, the bill itself wasn’t drafted until the morning of the session, so all amendments had to be drafted in the same day. What ever happened to careful deliberation? What ever happened open government?

This is not the New Hampshire way.

Report Card Time

Here are the House Republican Alliance Scores for the combined 2007-2008 session. We’ve broken them down for you in this chart.

The first percentage under Total reflects the total of the combination score for 2007-2008, the second number under Voted indicates how many votes out of 122 possible votes were cast. The Platform number indicates how many votes were in alignment with the Republican Party and the final percentage reflects the overall Attendance record, which one should compare with overall scores when evaluating platform support. For example, someone could have voted only 10 times out of the 122 possible votes, yet always voted with the Platform, thus scoring a 100%. However, their attendance score would have only been an 8%.

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